| One evening while I was watching TV, an idea for | | | | sentence structure. It was difficult for me to do |
| a novel popped into my mind. It struck me that a | | | | this since I was an educator, and I think I wasted |
| female hero in the mid 1800s was different, and | | | | more time trying to correct as I went along. |
| that her fight to get her children back from a | | | | Take my advice. Type your thoughts as they |
| marauding Sioux Indian just might make for | | | | come to you. You will rewrite and rewrite. One |
| interesting reading. I went to my computer and | | | | important lesson I learned more than once is to |
| wrote out the first and last chapters in an hour | | | | save, save, save your work. I do not care if your |
| and a half. That was the beginning of my novel, | | | | computer auto saves, save it again. Also, save |
| The Revenge of Sadie Jackson. I want to share | | | | your work to a disk and a USB drive. You can |
| with you the process that took me to being a | | | | never have your work saved in too many places. |
| published author. The very first thing to do is to | | | | Lose 20,000 words of hard work, and you will |
| listen to your thoughts. Be alert to ideas for a | | | | kick yourself for not taking my advice, and you |
| story. They are all around you. They may come | | | | may give up your project. Once I wrote my first |
| as you listen to a song, read a magazine, watch a | | | | and last chapters, I begin to think of characters |
| movie, see something on the news or from | | | | and how they would interact. You may have |
| observing adults and children. Keep a notebook | | | | more than one main character, but one strong |
| handy so you can write any ideas that come to | | | | character should show up throughout your story. |
| mind. Otherwise, you will lose them in a flash. | | | | I wrote the names of all the people in my story |
| Remember, novels are fiction; they are not true | | | | and fleshed out what they looked like, their |
| events and lend themselves to a wider | | | | personalities, and the part they would play. I |
| interpretation. Novels can be about anything. Your | | | | wrote out titles for each chapter and ideas for |
| imagination is your only limit. I must tell you that I | | | | developing them. Write down everything that |
| have a history of writing. When I held a regular | | | | comes to your mind as you think about each |
| job, before retiring 12 years ago, I wrote memos | | | | chapter. It is good, at this point, to think about |
| and manuals. I have self-published a small | | | | the things that will happen to spice up your story |
| pamphlet on dyslexia and written a few articles | | | | and capture the attention of your reader. One bit |
| on the Internet. None of that particularly prepared | | | | of advice I found on the Internet made it clear |
| me for writing a novel, though. Novels are usually | | | | that some twist, some conflict, some adventure |
| over 50,000 words, and it was difficult getting to | | | | needs to show up every few pages. Think of |
| my 85,000. However, I suggest you do not | | | | your own reading experience and you realize how |
| worry about length. Begin your writing and the | | | | books that have you sitting on the edge of your |
| length will come as you develop your story. I | | | | chair make for the best reading. Don't know |
| never thought about tackling a novel. When the | | | | anything about writing a novel, search the |
| idea struck me for my story, something triggered | | | | Internet for some few advice. After our |
| a yearning to complete it. To be honest, I got | | | | manuscript is at its final rewrite, find someone to |
| stuck at 45,000 words and thought I was not | | | | read it for clarity, grammar, interest, and |
| going to dredge up any more. It helped to put | | | | continuity. A friend is not necessarily the one to |
| aside my manuscript for a week and come back | | | | do this. If you can afford it, pay someone. If your |
| to it with a fresh outlook. | | | | manuscript has errors, a publisher will reject it. |
| You will be better off to write daily and not | | | | Even if you self-publish, you do not want to print |
| worry about correct spelling, grammar, and | | | | a book with glaring errors. |